I have a hard drive partitioned into a number of primary and extended partitions. One of the extended partitions (EXT2 formated) for some unknown reason has become unallocated (according to GPARTED). There was a LOT of important data on this disk that had not yet been backed up elsewhere. I suspect the data is still there, but I have no idea how to restore the partition to life.

If some kind soul could post some detailed steps that can be used to recover this lost partition, it would be GREATLY appreciated.